Gandalf the Grey on his return to Middle-earth

With Peter Jackson’s epic Lord Of The Rings prequel hitting cinemas imminently, the excitement is palpable.

McKellen plays one of the franchise's most well-loved characters, the wizard who kickstarts both adventures, Gandalf the Grey.

Some 60 years younger the he was in LOTR (thankfully wizards don’t age like humans), he gets to kick some ass this time around, as well as finding the time to fill in some gaps in Gandalf’s backstory that were missing from J.R.R. Tolkien's slender book.

Watch the video interview now:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in the UK on 13 December 2012.